Running From Lions
by Fall of Troy
Summary: Wolves attack without remorse for their victum. Lupin's face ends up in their jaws but who will be there to save him?
1. It's Safe to Say You Dig the Backseat

Chapter 1: It's Safe To Say You Dig The Backseat

The man ran down the dark alleyway. Feet pounded hard on stone, and his legs felt like they were falling off. Sweat rolled down his back and through his grimey clothes. Ludo Bagman was on the run.

He turned a corner and ran into a wire fence. Falling back on his hands, he felt his left wrist break. _Dammit._ Ludo took out his wand and fixed that problem in a hurry. _Good as new._ He took a few quick glances around the blackness and then blew the fence to pieces.

This particular street was full of boxes and sleeping bums. Ludo had spent many nights in quite the same squalor. He couldn't let that stop him, not now. He stood up and sprinted. Anyone of those hobos could be a goblin in disguise. Anyone of them could be waiting to kill him. However, no one made any bizarre movement to suggest such a thing.

He turned another corner and finally decided he had lost his pursuers. This would be as good a place as any to settle down and get some rest. Ludo collapsed on the street. Today had not been a good day. He had been hiding out in Liverpool, hoping to catch a ship out of the country. But they found him. A man with sharp features and eyes as deep as the sea spotted Ludo, and that was his cue to get the hell out of there. He bolted immediately, but the man had been right on top of him to the end. Ludo finally escaped inside a phonebooth and disapparated.

Now Ludo was exhausted. He had made it to London. The cold stone was cool on Bagman's aching body. His clothes stuck to his body from all the wetness, but he was in no mood to change them. Not now. Not after so much energy was already gone. Ludo had been on the run for over a year now. He was not a young man anymore, and his Quidditch days were far behind him. However, his new lifestyle had made him toned like he hadn't been in years. If there was one plus to this whole mess, that was it.

He decided to put up the effort to turn on his back, a much more comfortable position. The sky was blotted out by the light of the city. There was still a few stars visible though. Up there in that great blackness. The sky was his only comfort, his only constant. His life tore itself apart day after day after day. But that painting over his head never changed. Sure it was cloudy some days, and day turned to night, and night to day, but it was always there when he needed it the most.

His eyes grew heavy, and she popped into his head like she always did. That beautiful smile. Those dark eyes. Her blond hair. How Ludo missed her, but there was nothing for it. She was gone. Gone forever. If she could only see him now. He could sense his breathing becoming slower. Sleep came like a falcon that night. Fast and with a purpose.

The cottage was small and there she stood in front of him and smiling. She hugged him and whispered into his ear, "Ludo, I love you." Then it was gone and he was wretched out of his dream like a baby from its mother.

"Wake up! Wake up you fool!"

"What the blimey-" Ludo was being shaken awake by a haggerd looking man. A man who had seen much better days. "Geroff me!" and Ludo pushed the man off him. He reached for his wand, but it was gone.

"Shut up! Shut up! Do you realize how much danger we are in?"

That shut him up quickly. "What danger?"

"No time to explain, and keep your voice down." Even in the darkness the man looked worse for wear. His face was botched with scratches and his hair was disheveled. "Follow me if you want to live, and take this." The man threw Bagman back his wand. "If you see anybody _or anything_ coming toward us you know what to do with that I would expect."

The man started moving slowly like a prowler. His graying hair in a mess and a trickle of blood running down his neck. Ludo fallowed him slowly. Could this be a trick? Why should he trust this man?

Ludo whispered, "Who are you?"

"Right now that doesn't matter, but I will say this. I know who you are Ludo Bagman, and I don't know why I am bothering to save your pathetic life."

Did this man think he could talk to him like that? But he still kept close behind. His dirty clothes and boots hanging loosely on his body. "Who is trying to attack us?"

"Wolves."

"Wolves! Wolves!? My royal English ass! You are lying!" Ludo exclaimed.

And with that, the beasts charged. One came howling out of a nearby alley. Its intelligent eyes fixed right on him. It opened its jowls and baired its green teeth with old blood draped on them like salad dressing. It looked hungry. Hungry for him. Two more jumped from the top of buildings to the narrow street below.

Ludo pointed his wand at the wolf coming for him and shouted a curse. He missed, unsurprisingly. The manwolf howled in amusement. Its prey so close. It leaned down to pounce. Its eyes, so full of the lust of the hunt, and the coming feeding frenzy. Then it was blown against the wall. Its body crumpled into a heap. Ludo's companion shot another blast at it and it layed still.

The other two mongrels were now circling the pair of them. "Go away you manbeasts!" The haggerd man next to Ludo shouted, almost laughing. "Are you really this hungry that you would feed on your own?"

The wolves answered with eager breathing. Indeed they were.

"Fine then. Ludo, raise your wand."

Ludo was too scared to though. He sat there tranfixed, unable to move. He was even having trouble moving his eyes from their position.

"Oh you great oaf!" The man shot a spell at the grey wolf. It dodged it easily, and the other wolf charged. It grabbed Ludo companion's right leg with its jaws, as Ludo collapsed onto the stone. He cowered there, not knowing at all what to do.

The man howled with laughter as he kicked the wolf off him and shot it with a spell. The beast flew through the air. Up, up, up it went. Over an unknown building.

With that, the last wolf charged, panting. It rammed into the man's chest, and stood on top him. Its paws on his shoulders. For awhile, they stared into eachother's eyes. Man versus wild. Then the dog acted, throwing it's opened jaws into the man's face.

The next instant, the dog was off the man. Ludo stood poised with his wand in his hands. The wolf stared at him with cachinnation in its eyes. It's muzzle dripping with crimson sludge. "Get out of here ya rancid creature!" The wolf did not move as Ludo lifted the man up next to him.

He looked even worse before, but the bite had not done much damage. "Tell your master, wolf, that Lupin will stop this. Tell him the war has just begun." With that Lupin started laughing. The dog scampered off with the damaged man ambling after, taking shots at its tail. Ludo stood there for a second and decided to race after as well. This had been quite the night.


	2. I Shall Not Walk Alone

Chapter 2: I Shall Not Walk Alone

Ludo ran quietly after the two. One of the pair ahead was an injured man cackling and guffawing to himself. The other was a creature howling in pain from the repeated blasts to its hindquarters. However, it was becoming increasingly obvious that the cackling man would not last much longer. His breathing was loud enough for even Bagman to hear. Not to mention the way he was walking, almost like a puppet being dragged along by an invisible hand. Then the inevitable happened, the man fainted and collapsed onto the cold ground. "Oh bugger!" Ludo exclaimed to himself. If the man had fallen, who would be left to protect him if the wolves showed up again? No one, that's who.

The wolf went whimpering off without so much as a glance back. Good. One less thing to worry about. Ludo slid across the brick and bent down next to the fallen man.

Finally, Ludo could see the full details of this man who called himself Lupin. The morning light illuminated the crimson stains on his pale face. Blood ran down his temples where the wolf had bit his head, and his right leg was mutilated after its fateful encounter with a jaw full of vicious teeth. And this was all on top of the injuries the man had sustained even before he had encountered Bagman. It was obvious that this man had been through something terrible. It looked like he hadn't slept in days, with puffy, red eyes. The man had been crying, and his unshaven beard was draped in blood and what appeared to be tears.

"Stop staring and get me out of here," Lupin breathed.

Ludo jumped. He had thought the man had fainted. "Oh really? You gave me quite the fright good sir," Bagman wheezed.

"Well get over it. If you use a hovering charm on my body you can carry me some place safe. It's not far from here."

"Oh alright, I guess I could just fix your injur--"

"No! That'll be quite alright. I don't need all the bones to disappear or for boils to blot my respectably strong legs thank you."

Ludo was flummoxed. He was used to being ridiculed, but not by a man who looked like he could be on his deathbed. However, he obeyed what Lupin said and lifted him to the air with a simple flick of his wand. The he lowered him on his back to appear as if he was carrying him, just in case in muggles happened to spot them.

"Tell me how to get to this...safe place...would you?" Ludo asked. He was tired as well. The little sleep he _had_ got was full of dreams that he would rather forget.

"Just keep on going straight for now. I will tell you what to do when we get there."

"Ok."

Then the awkward silence. Birds were beginning to chirp. It would soon be day, and Ludo definitely did not want to be spotted in the day. They would find him. They always did when he didn't take cover quick. But what about those wolves?

"Say, Lupin, are those wolves gonna be returning any time soon?" Ludo asked casually.

Lupin led out a hoarse chuckle. "Are you thinking of abandoning me? No! They will not be back, but they are, in fact, the least of my current worries. There is much worse things in England these days than enchanted wolves--"

"So that's what they were then? Enchanted wolves? Not werewolves, I daresay?"

"Don't worry my chubby acquaintance. No, they were not. Just enchanted wolves. Lucky for us, or mainly you actually, there wasn't a full moon."

Ludo was confused. What was going on? "But who would enchant wolves? Why doesn't the Ministry of Magic do something?"

Now Lupin really did start laughing. Big ones, not of happiness and warmth, but of sadness and loss. "You really are behind, aren't you?" the man chortled, "Voldemort's back!" Ludo froze.

"How dare you speak his name," he whispered.

"Don't worry. It hasn't been jinxed. Not yet anyway. Turn left here."

Ludo did. The pair of them were engulfed by the narrow darkness of a new alley. It was well hidden but full of trash and graffiti.

"How could this be? How could he back?"

"I am actually surprised you do not know already. Weren't you there the night of the Triwizard championship?"

"No," Bagman answered, "I had fled during that very match when it was clear that Harry had not won."

"Not only that though," Lupin continued, "Voldemort's men have been hunting for you for months now. He wants to kill you. To make an example of you in front of the goblins. Show them that he is on their side."

"Dear lord," Bagman wheezed. That would make sense though. It had not been a goblin in disguise that chased him in Liverpool, it had been a man.

"Take another left now."

Another silence settled in. However, it was not an awkward one, but a tired one. This had not been what he had been expecting to hear. You-know-who himself had been after him this entire time. He needed protection, and possibly this man could give it to him. He would not abandon him now. However, if a death eater _did_ appear at this very moment, Ludo would disapparate in a heartbeat, with or without this man.

Then Ludo remembered something. "Lupin, were you crying tonight?"

The man did not answer right away. A sad noise came out Lupin's mouth. "Yes."

The alley opened onto a wider street lined with many identical houses. "Look at this paper Ludo." Ludo did. On the the small, crumpled sheet was an address to a house. Number 12, Grimmauld Place to be exact.

"You are accompanying me to the House of Black."


	3. The Backwards Pumpkin Song

**Chapter 3: The Backwards Pumpkin Song**

Lupin was lethargic. Whenever he closed his eyes the werewolf was having a great deal of trouble opening them again. His head bobbed, begging to fall over. The early morning air would have been crisp in Lupin's nostrils had there not been the stench of drying blood instead. His body ached, but most of all his heart still ached. Sirius was dead. His last friend. Dead.

"This is it. This is the house," escaped Lupin's dry lips.

"What? I don't see anyth-"

"Wait! You badgering baboon. It will appear if you just wait."

And it did indeed. The familiar building stood before the two of them like it had been their the whole time. In fact it had, but Lupin could tell it did not sit well with the man next to him. A man who looked like he at one time carried plenty of fat, but had lost it quite quickly and never got it back. His face annoyed Lupin, with its man-boyness. It's innocence. Yet under that misleading face Lupin knew camoflauged another man. They always hid under those types of guises. "Let's go inside," Lupin said.

Luckily Bagman had had the intelligence to make a decent hovering charm. His right leg was the part that physically hurt the worst. Thank God he was at least smart enough to do that. Ludo carried up Lupin up to the narrow door and knocked.

The door opened quickly. A large black man with an earring stood there, wand pointed and waiting to strike. "What is James Potter animagus form?" Ludo looked shocked. His eyes darted left and right like they were trying to find a clever answer that wasn't there.

Lupin laughed at the stupidity of Ludo. Kingsley turned to him with a look of confusion on his face, but still with a look that could kill a man in an instant if he gave the wrong answer. "A stag."

"Oh jeez! Lupin what happened to you? Quick, get inside." Kingsley picked up Lupin this time. At a much quicker pace he was carried into the house. Darkness fell on them. Lupin's stomach seamed to drop to his feet. This was Sirius's home. A home that he hated. A home that he never would return to again. He could feel the man's presence in the house still. Depression hung in the air. Depression of a man who walked these vacant halls endlessly, with nothing to do. Falling asleep with only one thing on his mind: Harry Potter. His dead best friend's child, and his only outlet to the this scary new world. But he was gone now. Gone forever. No one would ever bark laughter like Sirius. No one could ever flip their hair so elegantly. No one now remained that could Lupin could share stories of the old days with.

Kingsley interrupted his thoughts, "Who is this man Lupin? It can't be? Ludo Bagman!" Kingsley gave the man an evil glare and Ludo shrank further into the darkness.

"Pardon me," Ludo whispered, "but what is that screaming?"

The portrait of Sirius's mother was howling insults better than ever. Lupin had grown so accustomed to it that he hardly picked up the noise anymore.

"That's not important right now," Kingsley said as they passed Sirius's mother. "Close the drapes will you?" Kingsley commanded Ludo. Ludo obeyed. "But what about you Lupin? What happened?" said as the two men arrived in the dirty kitchen, with the ragged man hot on their heels.

"LUPIN!" Tonks shouted. She had finally seen him. Over the past few months the kid had been asking him so many questions. Lupin believed he was almost like a father to her. "Is he alright?" her voiced shook.

"Move Tonks and I will find out." Kingsley laid Lupin down on the table and bent over his face. "That's easily repaired," the big black man said. Then he moved to his legs, and stayed there a while longer. "Your right leg looks pretty bad Lupin, but it should be alright I think. Looks like a wolf bite, but it's not a full moon?"

Their eyes met. "Voldemort is having Death Eaters enchant wolves and patrol the street. It is no longer safe even around _this_ house. Who knows how many are out there? I did manage to seriously injure at least two, but that is easily mended. Just like me."

Tonks gave a nervous laugh. "But he will be alright, won't he Kingsley?"

"Yeah, you know as well as I do that he will. We both took Auror classes did we not?"

"True," she said almost to herself. Her hair had gone pitch black in her heightened state of stress. This clashed strongly with her pale face, giving her the look of a zombie. Under the light she looked like a scared child.

Kingsley began the process of healing his wounds. In a few minutes, Lupin was feeling a lot better, but still very tired. Tonks looked relieved, relaxed, and finally realized there was another man standing in the room.

"Who are you?!"

"How many times do I have to answer this question?" Ludo coughed.

"That's Ludo Bagman, Tonks. One of the many men Voldemort wants dead. I offered him protection, which he gladly accepted," Lupin said. "But I do have a few conditions for him." Lupin turned to stare at Bagman.

"You will help me do what I need to do, no matter what it is. Do you understand?"

"What is it that you want me to?"

"I cannot tell you yet. Not before you agree."

"What? Why should I settle for such a foolish thing? That's madness."

The room suddenly became very still. Silence fell and was hard to make leave.

"Then you are back on the streets."

"But surely-"

"NO Bagman! There is no choice! You must help me or you must leave!"

"You can't make me go. I could tell You-know-who's men where this place is!"

"Oh yes, you would offer yourself up so he can kill you after. Plus, we will put some hard to break memory charms on you. You won't even know that you have been here, and neither would the Death Eaters if they caught you."

Ludo seamed to be considering this prospect. His face tensed up. Eyes again shot back and forth.

"You used to be a gambler Ludo. Remember those days? You are now gambling with your life. The stakes are higher. Are you man enough to do that?"

Ludo looked offended. The kitchen again became silent. Tonks and Kingsley stood quietly waiting for the argument to end. They had nothing to add.

"Fine," Ludo said simply.

"Fine _what_?"

"I-I" he stammered, "I will help you with whatever you have to do."

"You will risk your life if you have to? You will journey into dangerous territory for the Order of the Phoenix's protection?"

"Yes. If I have to."

"Good."

Then Kingsley said, "I'm sorry, but both of you need rest. The pair of you look like exhausted hinkypunks."

Lupin laughed yet again, but before he was through he had fallen asleep.


End file.
